There are a variety of children with many different needs at Starks Field. In order to support my ability to best serve these children, I have asked the SEN Coordinator for speech and language reports on particular children with special needs. This has allowed me to plan learning goals for these children. While planning for children with special needs, I don’t only focus on their musical achievement, but their achievement in other areas (communication, language, reasoning).

I have also worked with the SEN coordinator and LSAs in order to teach speaking and listening skills to small groups of SEN children in KS1 and KS2. This has allowed me to use music in order to build children’s communication skills, which has been effective for many SEN children. Last school year, I met weekly with a group of EAL children in Reception. We spent 10-15 minutes each week singing and learning new songs. I found that was a very effective way of building language skills, especially among children with little or no English abilities.